_______Get Involved

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Help Out If you are interested in helping with the greenhouse gas inventory, integrating sustainability into Ohio U's curriculum, or any other PCC project, please contact Sustainability Coordinator Sonia Marcus by e-mail at marcuss@ohio.edu	Take Action There are small actions you can take in your daily life to reduce and offset your greenhouse gas emissions. These actions, combined with initiatives like the Presidents Climate Commitment, will help combat climate change on both a macro and micro scale. • Unplug appliances when not in use. In the average American household, 40% of the electricity used for electronics is used when the devices are turned off. A computer that is left running continuously will emit 2160 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. • Replace your light bulbs with compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs. CFL’s are four times more efficient or use 50-80% less energy and last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Replacing a single incandescent bulb with a CFL will keep a half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the life of the bulb. • Make sure the tires on your car are properly inflated. Under-inflated tires make vehicles less fuel-efficient (by up to 3%), which translates into more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. Walk, ride a bike, or carpool whenever possible. • Conserve water and energy simultaneously by taking shorter showers. Replace leaky faucets, showers, and toilets as quickly as possible. A leaky toilet can waste as many as 200 gallons of water a day. • Plant a tree. Each tree you plant will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide throughout its lifetime.
Learn More To learn more about related issues like alternative energy and green building, or to find specific Athens and Ohio U initiatives with which you can get involved, visit Planet OHIO, Ohio U's campus gateway to sustainability. Check out a powerpoint and notes from a public forum held in the spring of 2006 about the Presidents Climate Commitment
Sources: (2007, May 4). Climate Change. Retrieved June 26, 2007, from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/index.html (2007). Green Computing Guide. Retrieved June 26, 2007, from Ecology & Energy Conservation Committee website: http://www.facilities.ohiou.edu/greenpc/ (2006). Take Action. Retrieved June 26, 2007, from An Inconvenient Truth website: http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/